State awards $8.6 million for new bus line from Redding to Sacramento

State officials recently awarded the Shasta Regional Transportation Agency a multi-million grant to launch a new intercity bus service.
Sean Longoria, Record Searchlight

Maps showing the current (left) public transit systems and what's proposed (right) under a $16 million grant application by the Shasta Regional Transportation Agency.(Photo: Shasta Regional Transportation Agency)

North State residents by the end of next year will be able to catch a cheap bus ride to Sacramento to catch a flight, do some shopping or travel even farther.

State officials are giving the Shasta Regional Transportation Agency more than $8.6 million to launch a fleet of seven electric buses to create a service linking Redding to Sacramento and some North State cities to the main line.

“We’re looking at as little as $15 from Redding to Sacramento. Maybe $20 tops but $15 is what we’re shooting for,” SRTA Executive Director Dan Little said Monday. “We want it to be attractive for people who have the option of driving their cars.”

SRTA earlier this year applied for more than $16 million for the main line and three other routes to connect travelers across the rural North State to Sacramento and connections to other parts of the state. The grant award, though, only includes funding for a line connecting Williams to Red Bluff and stopping at cities in between.

Even without those routes, SRTA estimates more than 58,000 riders each year in the first two years.

Some North State bus services already offer connections to Redding from as far away as Modoc and Del Norte counties.

After the main bus lines launch focus can switch to developing those connections through other bus providers, including seeking future funding rounds, Little said.

“We hope if we can establish the service and show success we can bring in the other feeder services,” he said.

SRTA also envisions the bus line to connect Bay Area and Sacramento residents – who are used to more robust public transit - with North State recreation.

The buses will have comfortable chairs, wireless internet access and other amenities riders would typically find on a modern airplane except for food service, Little said.

“It’s not going to be a bare-bones bus,” he said.

The grant is part of $2.6 billion awarded this year by the California State Transportation Agency for similar projects. The grants are funded by gas taxes through Senate Bill 1 and proceeds from state cap and trade auctions.

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Jennifer Pollom, senior transportation planner with the Shasta Regional Transportation Agency, explains the agency's application for a grant to create an intercity bus system to connect North State routes to each other and Sacramento.
Sean Longoria

SRTA applied for the same grant two years ago, but the state turned it down. The project was widely supported by transit officials, North State governments and others.

“A common concern is the lack of high-quality, convenient and reasonable cost transportation between Shasta County and important neighboring regions, specifically including connections to Sacramento, and from there the San Francisco Bay Area, and beyond through the airport,” Shasta Living Streets Executive Director Anne Thomas wrote in a letter of support attached to the application.

Little said he’ll present a business plan for the new service to the SRTA board in mid-June. SRTA is also exploring whether businesses or other groups could pre-purchase tickets on the new line.